Where there is Fire, There is Smoke
by Willow-Tree-Silver
Summary: We all had the thought. What if the prophecy of 7 was the prophecy of 8? Another question: What are you supposed to do when a strange girl appears on to your giant Greek war ship and tries decapitating you? Fall in love with her,duh! A love story between Leo Valdez, and My OC who is 1/2 god and 1/2..Not human. Who is this girl? What is her name? Read to find out Is all I'll say.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello ! My name is Willow and I'm sorta new here. I just got a laptop (been saving for months!) and now I'm finally able to type and publish this fic! I have been handwriting this whole thing since, what October now..?(I got to like, page 64 when i handwrote this thing...) Whatever, it doesn't matter. What matters is that i actually lied and i'm not willow, i'm rick riordan and i wrote the whole pjo and hoo series! NOT.**

 **I. OWN. NOTHING. If i did write the Pjo and HOO series, i wouldn't be working on fanfics. I'd be writing my next book. So.. intro, check! Disclaimer... Check! All right, that's all for now, enjoy the story, folks!**

Chapter 1: Mirror, Mirror on the wall

She woke up with a headache. She felt like her whole body was one massive bruise and she didn't know where she was.

What a lovely morning.

She looked around the room. On her left there was a nightstand, in front of her wasa dresser with a mirror attached to it. Next to it were to hardwood letters mounted on the wall, An A and a C. There was a desk, pushed up against the right wall, with an open laptop on it. All around the walls were picture of a blonde girl. In some she was with a middle aged man, who had the same blonde hair. Likely her relative. In others, she was with a boy about her age with dark hair that desperately needed a haircut and bright green eyes. She couldn't figure out who the boy in the pictures was, but she saw one picture where the boy had his arm around the blonde girl and figured they were a couple.

She twisted her torso to crack her back but discovered she could barely move in the stiff violet corset she was wearing. Wait, hold up. Corset..? Last time she checked the fanciest article of clothing she had was her cloak. Cloak... Where was her cloak? It was her second most prized possesion, her choker being the first. She touched her neck to make sure it was still there. She felt the cystal pendant that she would've known blindfolded.

At least they allowed me to keep that, she thought. Then it hit her like a pile of bricks ( **heh heh bricks)** Who were they? Who had dressed her this way and more importantly, why? Who had kidnapped her and taken her here? (Obviously, she had to have been kidnapped, how else would she have gotten there?) And most of all, where did they put that cloak? She looked around for it.

"Where is it, where is it, where is it?" She covered her mouth as soon as she'd said it.

Not once in her 15 years of life had she ever heard those words, but she somehow knew just what they meant. The amount of surprises that day was just getting ridiculous , she woke up in a room that wasn't her own (even though she'd never actually had a real "room",) Then she was wearing a corset and a silky black skirt, and she couldn't find her cloak, which she normally carried with her every where she went.

She kept looking under the pillows, in dresser drawers, even under the desk, before she decided it was hopeless and flopped over on the bed. She felt something silk materialize in her hands. Naturally, it was her cloak.

"No way!" She turned the fabric over in her hands. The age old cloak she'd stolen from a shop when she was 6 had of course, gotten way too small, had been ripped in countless places, and had faded from black to gray. Now, her cloak was good as new. Black as her own shadow, every rip and threadbare place had miracalously vanished, and now, for the first time since she'd taken it from the shop, it fit her perfectly and the material wasn't as itchy, and more like silk. It couldv'e been a completely different cloak, but something told her it was then same one she'd grown up wearing.

She put it on and looked at herself in the mirror. Now her cloak was so long it dragged behind her. It was perfect, and the only thing about her new outfit that she liked. She was about to put the hood of her cloak on but something caught her eye. On her arms glinted two long silver glove like contraptions. They were designed in celtic swirling patterns and curled around either of her index fingers, like long rings. Despite the arm braces being solid metal, they felt like water. They moved easily, and flowed with her. She flicked her wrists. Why exactly? She wasn't sure but, her day couldn't get any stranger than it already was. (She'd find out later how horribly wrong she was,) The braces took on a form of silver molten lava, and then, twin katana blades, Just like the ones in the shop window she'd always wanted to take, but couldn't muster up the courage to even go in that place. She flicked her wrist again, and , as expected, the swords turned back to arm bands.

She looked back at the mirror. It might seem crazy, but this was the first time she'd ever really been able to see her own reflection clearly. The only real "mirror" she'd ever had was the pond by her orchid.

Ugh. The orchid. She winced at the thought of it.

Suddenly she was barely breathing. She could hardly believe she could actually see herself.

 _Because you have pretty eyes,_

His words rang around in her head

 _Anata wa kanari me o shite imasu,_

 _Anata wa kanari me o shite imasu,_

 _Anata wa kanari me o shite imasu,_

"STOP." she told the voice in her head. Why, of all times now?

 _Anata wa kanari me o shite imasu..._

"Watashi... Anata wa kanari me o shite imasu?" she asked aloud.

 _...Anata wa kanari me o shite imasu..._ the voice faded away.

She looked at her reflection. What had always been so interesting about her eyes? Every day he'd told her the same thing. "You have pretty eyes." That was the English translation, at least, but this was getting on her nerves. Where did she even learn to speak in English? How did she know this new language was called English? Yesterday, she didn't know any other languages existed.

 _Whatever. Focus on the task at hand._

She looked back at the mirror.

Now she understood why.

She didn't think her eyes were pretty, to her they just like your everyday, average pair of looking holes, aside from the fact that they were purple. Yeah. Purple. Blue and Green eyes were already rare enough where she came from, but purple? Unheard of. It took her a little while to realize why she had purple eyes, but when she did, it seemed ridiculous that she didn't figure it out right away. She put her hand on mirror. Her reflection did the same thing. She stayed there.

" _Setsuzoku,"_ She said.

BOOM!

The entire room shook like an earthquake was happening.

BOOM!

The blast knocked her off her feet and made her ears ring.

BOOM!

She hit her head against the dresser drawer and collapsed, unconcious.

 **MUAHAHA! SUSPENSE! Soooo, i hope yall liked it, first chapter of the first story, WOOH! Sorry it was kinda short, but what ever. Hopefully you'll stick around to find out exactly who "she" is, and what happens next! BTW, the middle aged guy with blonde hair i mentioned in the photos is ANNABETH'S DAD. Just wanted to clear that up, okay? OKAY! I will try to update weekly, if not sooner. If you are confused with this story so far, then like and comment, because that's what i was going for! Any constructive criticism is accepted** , **and flames can FLAME ON! ( I have a Leo obsession) I'll just ignore you! :)**

 **Love to all my lovely readers,**

 **~Willow-Tree-Silver~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello ! Here we are on the second chapter, and I am currently writing this on a bus. To Disneyland. Yup. Disneyland. (The entir choir program at school is having an epic field trip! with no parents!) I had to get to school at 3:30 IN THE MORNING to catch the charter bus all the way to California! ( I live in Nevada, so that's like a four hour drive, BTW) OK, enough about me ( Willow Tree, who does NOT own the PJO & HOO series!) Let's get to the story!**

Chapter 2; What a "pleasant" surprise...

 _I. Am. An. Idiot._ Thought Leo. _I'm an idiot!_

He had done some questionable things in his life, but this? How could he have been stupid enough to fire on New Rome, and destroy their only chance of peace with the Roman camp?

"Annabeth!" Called Percy from below decks. "We need you!"

Now Leo was starting to worry, according to Piper, somebody had thrown a brick at his head "If he didn't make it...

Annabeth must've picked up on his emotions.

"He'll be ok. Just-just try not to blow anything else up. Frank, watch Leo please." She turned to go.

 _Well, that's fantastic. Annabeth now trusts a Roman she's known for like, 3 minutes, more than me._

Frank and Leo sat in awkward silence for a while. Frank cleared his throat.

"So, uh, your name isn't Sammy?"

"No, my name is Leo. In case you didn't realize yet... What kind of question is that?"

"it's just- nevermind. About firing on the camp... Do you think it could've been Octavian? Like, magically? He didn't want the Greeks and Romans to get along anyway."

"It was me. I don't know how it happened, ok?" Leo was grateful at least one person didn't hate him, and wished that he could pin everything on that stupid augur Octavian, but that would only make matters worse than they already were. He sighed. "Look, I'll go get a damage report from Festus-"

"Festus? who's he? Where is he?"

"Oh! Come on I'll introduce you guys. His name isn't Sammy either, if you were wondering..."

The figure head turned 180 degrees to see yelped and jumped back.

"It's alive!" If Leo hadn't been in such a CRAP mood, he probably would've laughed.

"Uh, yeah. Frank, Festus. Festus, Frank. He used to be a full bronze dragon, but ther was an accident."

"You have a lot of accidents...' Frank noted.

"Well, some of us can't turn in to dragons, so we have to build our own." He arched his eyebrow at Frank. While he'd been half conscious, he was pretty sure he'd seen a dragon land on the ship, and that dragon turned into Frank. "Anyway, I revived him as a figure head so he could be with me on the ship. How're things looking, Festus?"

The dragon made a series of mechanical noises. Over the past few months, he'd learned to interpret his machine language. Other demigods spoke Latin or Greek; He spoke Creak & Squeak.

"Ugh." He groaned. "Could be worse, but the hull is damaged in many places, most oars are knocked out of alignment and need to be fixed right away before we can go full speed again.

We need Celestial bronze, lime-"

"Why do you need limes?"

" Dude, _lime._ Calcium Carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other- Ah, nevermind. Point is we can't go far unless we get those. And also Tar."

" _AY-zuhl"_ Creaked Festus.

"What?" Said Leo. "Oh, _Hazel._ The girl with the curly hair, right?"

Frank chewed his lip.

"She's your girlfriend, isn't she?"

"Uh, well, I wouldn't say-"

"Is she your girlfriend or not?"

"Um.. Yes. She's my girlfriend. Is she okay?"

'She's fine. Festus says she's following us on a horse."

Frank looked relieved. Festus creaked something again.

"Seriously?!" Asked Leo. "You're kidding me!"

"What?" Asked Frank.

"The hull is damaged so badly that we can only manage one landing!" He groaned. "And we won't be avle to get back in the air again until it's fixed. So that means we'll need to land somewhere with all rhe supplies we need."

Frank scratched his head. "Where exactly are we gonna find Celestial bronze? I think they'd be out of stock at Home Depot."

"Festus, scan."

"He can scan for Celetsial bronze?" Asked Frank. "What can't he do?"

 _You should've seen him when he was a full bronze dragon,_ Thought Leo. Then he mentally slapped himself for thinking of that. He knew it would cause him too much pain to think of how Festus used to be. He peered over the ship's bow. _What if the Romans are following us?_

The Argo II could move quickly, but he doubted thast the Romans couldn't.

The stairs creaked behind him. It was Annabeth and Percy. His heart did a somersault.

"Is Jason-'

"Resting," Said Annabeth. "He should be fine. Piper's keeping an eye on him."

Percy glared at him. "Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?"

"I-I don't know how it happened, I'm so sorry-"

" _Sorry?"_ he growled.

"Percy. Calm it down." Said Annabeth "What's the-"

The stairs creaked behind them. It was Piper.

"Hey Leo, Jason's gonna be o-'

"Already told him." Interrupted Annabeth. "And you're supposed to be watching him!"

"Oh yeah. Oops." She shrugged it off and turned to go, only to be run into by another person.

 _Wait,_ thought Leo. _That can't be right. Unless Jason's awake, that's everyone on the ship..._

It definetly was not Jason.

Standing before them was a tall and slender person, a woman, wearing a long, black, hooded cloak that covered her face. She carried two long silver ninja swords, that Leo thought made her look like the Wolverine.

"Who is captain of this ship?" The girl had an accent. Maybe British, French, or Australian, or a mix of all three and some other languages sprinkled here and there. Whatever it was, it was pretty, but they wouldn't learn that until later. A typical human voice doesn't sound very pretty when you feel like killing everyone in your immediate vicinity. Leo was still getting over the initial shock of their surprise guest, and didn't realize everyone was pointing towards him until Wolverine chick had both swords at his neck. The other demigods drew their weapons, but didn't attack.

 _pfft, some friends you guys are.._

 _"_ Who are you, and why are you keeping me here?"

"WOAH! POINTY THING!" He glanced at Piper who fortunetely got the message. She flicked on the charm speak.

"Hey, you don't need to be hostile-" Wolverine girl had one sword still pointed at Leo, and the other was at Piper's throat.

"Why shouldn't I be? Because 'You're not going to hurt me?'"

"YES! Exactly, we-"

"If harm is not your intention, why do you all have weapons at the ready?" She raised Piper's chin with her sword. "You're a terrible actress, you know." She made a tsk, tsk noise "Not convincing at all.

This just didn't register with Leo's mind, or any of their minds for that matter. Piper had charmspeak, and they all knew first hand how powerful it could be. The only way this new girl wouldn't do what Piper told her to was if she was immune to charmspeak. But that was impossible. Only other people with charmspeak and gods are immune to charmspeak.

"If you really want to convince me, drop your weapons." She gestured to Percy, Annabeth and Frank with the sword she'd been pointing at Leo. "All of you."

Piper dropped Katoptris. (She would've been decapitated otherwise,)

Frank lowered his bow a little, then raised it back up again.

Percy and Annabeth stayed put.

The Wolverine girl removed her swords from Piper's chin and walked leisurely over to Percy and Annabeth. Just before turning her full attention to them, she snapped her head over to look at Frank. From under her hood, Frank saw two glowing purple dots, like eyes, and dropped his bow out of confusion. She snapped her head back over to Percy and Annabeth. She menacingly pointed her swords at either of them.

"You have two options: Follow the other's lead and we can all be happy and get along! Or don't and learn how to live your life without a head. What's it gonna be?"

Percy did nothing. Annabeth didn't waver.

"Option two it is!" She touched both of their necks with the sharp end of her blade, but didn't apply enough pressure to do any damage. "Unless, of course , you want to reconsider?"

Annabeth inhaled sharply and dropped her dagger. Percy stood his ground.

"Drop the sword." She pressed the katana firmer into his skin. "Now." she said through gritted teeth.  
He didn't move.

And that's where things got weird.

From the ground where the girl stood, a malicious shade of violet fog started to swirl around her feet, and for only half a second, she was levititating.

Then everything came to an abrupt halt. Her feet hit the ground with a soft thunk. The fog dissipiated as soon as it had appeared., She flicked her wrists and the swords melted onto her arms. Then she ran, without an explanation, down the stairs and back to the room she'd woken up in. And, in the process, leaving 5 very confused demigods.

 **CLIFFY! Haha i'm so evil...Welp, stay tuned for the next chapter, I guess...**

 **Favorite, follow, and review if you liked it, and if ya didn't tell me how to make it better, this is my first fic.**

 **Love to all my lovely readers,**

 **~Willow-Tree-Silver~**


	3. AN

**OMG EVERYONE I AM SO SORRY.**

 **i KNOW IT'S BEEN LIKE A WEEK SINCE LAST CHAPTER ALREADY AND I SAID I'D UPDATE WEEKLY. sorrrryyyy. I 've been wotking on chapter three forever and a day, so it's gonna be reeeeallly long, I'm already up to about 4000 words and that's only three quarters of the chapter. Probably will be uploaded in a day or two, extra long chappie for you guys. ILYSM GUYS!(::) have a cookie for being so patient ;)**


	4. Chapter 3

**FIIIIIIINALLLYY IT'S HERE! I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS CHAPTER FOREVER. iT IS A TOTAL OF 6869 WORDS EXACTLY. Sorry this chapter took so long, but I think it's worth the wait, and if it's not, tell me why and how I can make it better in the reviews (::) heres a cookie because i'm nice and so are you :))))))**

The ship was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Nobody moved. They were hardly breathing. The silence was broken only by Festus who squeked about his scan.

"Perfect," Said Leo.

"Perfect? What's so perfect ? I think we could all use some perfect right now!" Asked Annabeth.

"Everything we need in one place! Frank, turn into a bird or something and tell Hazel to meet us at Great Salt Lake, Utah."

Once they arried, it was not a pretty landing. Leo barely managed a controlled descent. Everybody else had strapped themselves in below decks. (except for himself and Hedge, who insisted on clinging to the rail yelling "YEAH! Bring it on, LAKE!")

"Hold on Coach!" He yelled over the sound of Festus's creaking and whirring of warning signals. "This is going to hurt!"

"I WAS BORN FOR HURT!"

FWOOOM!

A swell of saltwater washed over the bow, dousing Hedge. The ship listed dangerously to port, then righted itself and rocked against the surface of the lake.

The oars that were still working changed to nautical form.

"WOOH! DO IT AGAIN!"

"Uh, maybe later... You keep watch, in case the uh... lake tries to attack us or something."

"On it!" promised Hedge.

Leo rang the all clear bell and headed for the lounge/ messhall where they all said to meet when they landed. A loud clumping noise stopped him.

On the back of a tan stallion was Hazel Levesque.

"How..?" His question crawled back into his throat to die. "We're in the middle if a lake." He pointed down. "Does that thing fly?"

"Arion can't fly," she said casually. "But he can run across just about anything. Small mountains, verticle surfaces, water... None of that bothers him."

"Oh."

Hazel looked at him strangely, the same way she had looked at him at the Feast forum earlier. He was beginning to wonder if he had a huge pimple or something, but that was stupid. He started to feel self-conscious.

"So, um..." He cleared his throat. "Do you want to put him in the stables-"

"He's more of a free spirit, he'll graze around the lake until I call him. Besides, I want to see the ship. Lead the way."

Leo gave her the "Grand Tour" ending at the stern, where the mess hall was located. He opened the double doors to reveal the rest of the crew sitting dejectedly around the large table. They both took a seat.

"So." Said Percy. "We landed. Now what?"

Frank plucked his bowstring. "Figure out the prophecy? I mean, that was definetly a prophecy Ella spoke, right?" He explained that Ella the harpy like to memorize books in her spare time and had somehow gotten a hold of the Sibylline books of Prophecy.

Annabeth laced her fingers. "I'll worry about the prophecy, but right now we need to fix the ship. What do we need, Leo?"

"Tar is the easiest thing. Just go to a roofing supple store, but we'll also need lime-"

"Limes?"

"Why do you need fruit?"

"Yeah, why limes?"

"UGH. LIME! Calcium carbonate! Do you people know nothing?"

"Guys, he means lime stone." Interrupted Annabeth. "Continue."

"Last thing is Celestial bronze. According to Festus, we can find both on an island in the lake, just west of here."

"We'll need to hurry," warned Hazel. "If I know Octavian, which I unfortunetely do, he's probably searching for us with his auguries already. He might even have a strikeforce after us right now. It's a matter of honor."

Leo felt everyone's eyes on him.

"Guys, I-I really don't know what happened back there-"

Annabeth raised her hand.

"We've all been talking. We agree that it couldn't have been you who fired on the camp. That cold feeling you mentioned... I felt it too. It must've been Gaea or one of her minions, but until we understand what happened,"

Frank grunted. "How can we all be sure it won't happen again?"

His fingers warmed up like they were about to catch on fire.

"I'm ok now, I swear." He wished he could be as sure as he sounded. "Maybe we should use the buddy system? I mean, isn't there a reason demigods go on quests in groups limited to three? That's the whole reason we built this ship, right?"

"Exactly," said Annabeth. "The ship is our way of transportation and protection. A group of seven demigods plus one satyr would attract way too much monstrous attention anyways. On the ship, we're fine, but if we go on little voyages like this one, groups of three max. No sense in alerting Gaea's minions more than we need to."

"Split up?" Asked Percy. "That doesn't sound like a good idea,"

"We'd get more done faster," pointed out Hazel.

"All right, fine." Percy, though reluctantly, laced his fingers through Annabeth's. "As long as you're my buddy, I'm cool with it."

Hazel smiled. "Oh that's easy! Frank, you were great turning into a dragon earlier! Maybe you could do it again to fly Percy and Annabeth into town!"

"But then who will go with you?"

"I'll ride Arion with Sa-er-Leo, here."

Frank scowled. Obviously, he didn't like the idea of Leo and Hazel going off together alone. For whatever reason, it made Leo want to go even more. He had to prove he was trustworthy.

"Its settled then." concluded Annabeth. "We meet back here asap, we could all use some good luck." She stood up to go. "That doesn't mean we'll get it."

murmurs spread throughout the messhall. They all got up to leave.

"Wait." Leo interrupted. "What about that...Other girl?"

"-Oh yeah.."

"-We can't just leave her onboard with Piper, Hedge and Jason."

"What other girl?" Asked Hazel.

As if on cue, the double doors swung open and hit the walls with a bang.

"That one.." Said Leo.

Hazel gaped at the tall hooded figure in the doorway.

Percy glared like he had unfinished business with her, which he of course did

Annabeth seemed to be deep in thought.

Frank stared blankly.

Leo wasn't exactly sure why, but he smiled. It was only a small smile, barely even there, but it was a smile. Like he was some creepy villain who would be caressing a skull and saying ," _I've been expecting you,"_

"She could come wih us, I guess." Hazel stared at him like he was insane. He made the same expression she was making every time he looked in the mirror.

"Go with you where?" The girls accent was more recognizable this time.

Leo explained briefly that he'd gotten the ship stuck in the middle of a battlefield and that they were scouting for repair materials.

She was silent for a while.

"Fine. I'll go with."

"But there isn't enough room on Arion!" Protested Hazel.

"I have my own mode of transportation. I'll meet you at the island."

"How?" Asked Leo.

"That," she snapped. "Isn't your concern. Now if we plan to be back by dark, as you said, we must go now."

Nobody moved.

"Come along, we can't waste time."

The entire crew was dumbstruck by how quickly this unknown person had gone from wanting to kill them to encouraging their mission.

With a swish of her cape, she was gone.

"She's right," Percy sighed. "We should get going."

Riding Arion was the highlight of Leo's day, which wasn't actually saying much, because his day had been the living definition of suckish.

He put his hand on the horse's thigh. He could feel it's muscles working together like a well oiled machine. For the first time in his life, he understood why cars were measured in horse power, and Arion was basically a Maserati with hooves.

It wasn't long before they reached the island. They were both surprised to see the other girl, patiently waiting for them.

Leo scooped up a handful of sand.

"Yes!"

"Yes what?" Asked Hazel

"Lime!" He shook the handful of sand under her nose. ''The whole beach!"

He pulled out three plastic bags. He gave one to Hazel and one to Wolverine chick.

"Well, start digging."

In no time, they'd collected about a month's supply of lime.

"Should be enough," He concluded, stuffing the bags into his toolbelt. "Now for that bronze..."

"That way. " Hazel pointed up the beach "About 500 yards."

The girl with the hood tilted her head, confused.

"How..?" Leo started.

"Uh... Power of Pluto.."

"Oh," He said simply. According to Percy, Hazel was a child of Hades's Roman form from the 1940's who'd come back from the dead. "Well, uh, lead the way miss metal detector,"

The sun was setting, and it was setting fast.

"Are we there yet?" Leo whined.

"Almost there," promised Hazel.

The walked over some dunes and saw a woman. She was sitting on a boulder in the middle of a grassy field, a black and chrome motorcycle was parked nearby, but a pie slice had been removed from each wheel, making the bike seemingly undrivable.

The woman had a bony frame and a large mass of curly black hair. Almost everything she was wearing was made of leather. Her boots, pants, even down to the blood-red jacket. Around the boulder she sat on were tons of oyster shells. At least they thought they were oyster shells, but that couldn't be right. Leo didn't think there'd be any oysters in Great Salt Lake.

Reluctantly, they forged ahead. As they advanced they noticed some disturbing details about this mystery lady. ( The other mystery lady, with the oysters. Not wolverine girl.)

She had a whip curled around her belt, the design on her jacket were the twisted branches of an apple orchid, populated by skeletal birds.

Of all things it had to be an orchid. An apple orchid. My rotten luck. Thought the girl with the hood.

The oysters she'd been shucking were actually fortune cookies. She'd crack one open, run her finger across the fortune, then magically reseal it and toss it into a basket.

Before he really knew why, Leo asked,

"What are you doing?"

The woman turned, and his lungs filled with fire. ( No pun intended.)

"Aunt Rosa."

There was just no way. He knew it couldn't be possible, aunt Rosa would never wear clothes like that and for all he knew, she was still in Houston, Texas.

And somehow, despite all that, here she was. He'd know that same sour expression any where, she always looked at Leo that way. It had to be her, they had the same defining broad nose, with a mole on the left side.

"Is that what you see?" asked the lady. "Interesting. And you, Hazel?"

"M-Mrs. Leer! My third grade teacher, I hated you!"

The woman cackled. "Excellent. Now what about you?" She gestured to wolverine girl.

"I-you-m-m-" The girl was trembling and couldn't find words. For the first time that day, she looked like she actually didn't know what to do. She was the type of person Leo thought would always be holding the reins, that they'd always be in control. Now she was just unsure.

"You poor little thing," The woman mocked with a sickening cackle.

Now he'd gone from wanting to punch this lady in the face, to wanting to pummel her with a hammer. Nobody hurt his crew, Not Hazel, not this new girl. Even if he didn't know her name, it didn't matter. Wolverine girl turned, still trembling, and touched something that seemed to be on her neck. (He couldn't tell where exactly her hand was, it sort of just vanished into the darkness of her cloak.)

"Who are you?" He growled at the woman.

"You don't know?" The woman faked a scandalized look. "You should know these things, mijo."

Mijo.

That was what his mother had called him until she died. Then, he'd been handed off to Aunt Rosa, who scowled at him and turned him over to social services. He bounced from foster home to foster home until he'd evntually caused so much problems that he'd been sent away to Wilderness School, which led to him finding Camp Half Blood.

He didn't usually take things as far to hate, but seeing Aunt Rosa's face again made him boil with resentment.

More than anything in the world, he wanted to get even.

He wanted revenge.

His eyes drifted over to her motor bike.

Why did it look so familiar? It took him a while to realize that he'd seen those broken wheels before. Above cabin 16 at camp, they were the symbol of Nemesis. He opened his mouth to say something, but Wolverine girl said it for him.

"Fukushu no megami," Said the girl, straightening up again. "Nemesis. Revenge Goddess." She said through grittted teeth.

Hold up! Thought Leo. One, did this girl just speak Chinese? And two, why is she so angry?

"Oh, look someone's heard of me! I'm feeling soooo loved!" Nemesis cracked another cookie and wrinkled her nose. "You will find good luck where you least expect it," she read aloud. "That stupid tramp, Tyche. Always giving out good luck to people who couldn't be more undeserving." She swiped her finger over the fortune, turning the letters blood-red as her jacket. "You will die painfully when you least expect it! Much better!"

Hazel seemed personally offended.

"That's horrible! You'd have someone read that and let it come true?! You're- you're-You're sick!"

"Speak for yourself!" Nemesis retorted. "You wished some awful things on Mrs. Leer!"

"Well, I didn't mean for them to come true!"

"Bah!" She resealed the cookie and tossed it into the basket. "Tyche would be Fortuna for Romans, correct? Ah, she's in a terrible state right now-"

"Hang on, I wasn't through with you-!" Started Hazel, but Nemesis just continued talking.

"-But me? I'm not affected-"

"You better crack open all those cookies again and change them back or I'll-"

"-I'm Nemesis in Greece and Rome-"

"You're gonna pay for all those terrible fortunes, you-"

"Revenge is universal, after all."

Hazel continued ranting until Leo sighed.

"You have five seconds to put all those fortunes back! Five! Four! Three! Tw-"

"-Hazel."

"What?!"

"Shut up. Please."

"But-"

"SHATTOAPPUFAKKU!" Snapped the girl in the hood.

That sounded suspiciously like shut the f*ck up... (I warned you that there would be language! )Thought Leo.

Hazel folded her arms in a huff. "Fine."

"Anyways. Nemesis, why are you are here?"

"I came to warn you," She said cooly. "War is brewing-"

"There isn't any war!" Leo shouted.

Hazel winced. "Well... You sorta, kinda, possibly, maybe, accidently blew up large portions of New Rome recently..."

He smacked his fore head. "Oh yeah."

"Well I didn't just come to warn you. I also came to offer some help."

"Your help?" Hazel pointed at her. "You're joking."

"Of course! I love tearing down the high and mighty, and Gaea and her Giants are just that. But still, you won't suffer an undeserved success. Good luck is a sham. The wheel of fortune is a Ponzi scheme. True success requires sacrifice."

"Sacrifice? I died and came back, lost my mom in the process, and now my brother has gone missing! Isn't that enough sacrifices for you?!" Hazel protested.

Leo could relate. He'd lost his mom, too. He'd lost everything of Festus except for his head. He'd nearly killed himself with exhaustion working on the Argo II, and now even that was in shambles. Not to mention he'd fired on Camp Jupiter, probably started a war and lost all his friends trust.

He sighed, "We don't need your help. What we need is some Celestial Bronze."

"Oh! Easy, just over the rise, you'll find it with the sweethearts!"

"Sweethearts..?" Wondered Hazel.

Nemesis crunched a cookie."You'll see. On a side note, your brother Nico doesn't have much time. June 25th, is it? Yes, after today, just 6 more days until he dies along with all of Rome."

"What?! How can-" Nemesis cut her off and faced Wolverine girl.

"Watashi wa hi o miru koto wa arimasenga, watashi wa kemuri o sanshō. Anata ga dete iru kasai. Demo shinpaishinaide kudasai. Anata wa sokuza ni atarashī hi o eru koto ga dekimasu. Osoraku, kono kasai. Sore wa hida auto shite shōmetsu suru made, kemuri dake masumasu usuku seichō shimasu. Hi o sai tenka sa reru baai wa, kemuri dake futatabi tsuyoku seichō shimasu." Said Nemesis.

"Faia?! Kemuri?! Dōiu imidesu ka?" Apparently, the girl understood everything Nemesis just said. The goddess smiled sweetly and turned to Leo.

"As for you child of fire, your hard ships are yet to come. You will always be an outsider, a seventh wheel. A stranger to your bretheren. Soon you'll come across a problem you cannot solve. But I can help you. For a price."

Leo smelled smoke and realized his left hand had gone ablaze. He shoved his hand in his pocket to extinguish the flame. Hazel gaped at him in terror.

"I think I'll solve my own problems.."

"Very well, then."

He cleared his throat. "But-uh-just out of curiousity, what type of price are we talking about?"

"One of children gave up an eye for the ability to make a real difference in the world."

His stomach churned. "You...Want my eye..?"

"No! Of course not! You'll need your eyes for this one to stare into," She gestured towards wolverine girl.

"Huh?" They said in unison

"-But it will be something just as painful!" She took out another cookie. "If you find you do need my help, which I completely guarantee you will, just crack it open."

Reluctantly, he took the cookie and slipped it into his belt. If a goddess guaranteed something, it was probably best to listen to her, no matter how much you wanted to face plant her. The cookie seemed to weigh him down, even though that was impossible, his belt being magic.

Nemesis cracked another cookie.

"You will soon need to reconsider your choices. I like that one!" She resealed it and tossed it into the basket. "Few gods will be able to help you, most are incapacitated, and their confusion grows each day. There is only one thing that can rebalance the scales again. Oh, wouldn't that be sweet! An old wrong finally avenged! But it can't happen without your acceptance of my help."

"So, I'm guessing you're not gonna tell us what you're talking about, why brother and Rome have 6 days to live, or how you two can speak a language that obviously isn't Latin or Greek?"

Nemesis chuckled. "Well, you guessed correctly. But you'll see it's all tied together. And Leo, think about my offer, will you? We could do business some time! Speaking of time, it's getting quite late. Sorry to keep you, you should get going. Afraid my poor-uh- how should I say this- cursed boy- gets a little agitated at dark." Nemesis, leaving them with that lovely thought, hopped on her undrivable pac-men wheeled motorcycle and despite EVERY LAW OF PHYSICS EVER, drove off. Hazel stooped down and picked up a fortune.

"You will see yourself reflected and have reason to despair."

"Great." Leo grumbled. "Let's go find out what that means."

Hazel climbed a boulder to get a better view. "So, who do you think that cursed boy is?"

"-That cursed boy is," said a voice below her. The voice caught Hazel so off guard that she nearly fell off the boulder. Leo climbed up the boulder, and Wolverine girl just jumped on it from where she'd been standing.

Damn! Where did this girl get her leg muscles from? A cheetah?! He thought.

At first, Leo saw nothing. Then his eyes adjusted. She wasn't completely invisible, but almost perfectly camoflauged until she moved.

"Are you that cursed kid Nemesis mentioned? Wait, no she said it was a boy, you're a girl..."

"You're a girl."

"Excuse me?" He said indignantly

"Excuse me?" The girl repeated.

"Oh... Wait! Hazel, wasn't there some myth about a girl who had to repeat everything she heard..?"

"Um.. I think so.. Uhh what was that name again?"

"Echo." Concluded wolverine girl. "I think a goddess did this."

"A goddess did this.." Echo sighed miserably.

"But that happened millenia ago! How're- Oh! You're one of the mortals who came back from the dead!'

Hazel looked down at her shoes.

"Sorry, didn't mean it that way..."

"That way!" Echo pointed towards something.

"You want to show us something..?"

"Show us something!" She confirmed. Echo started to sprint and the others followed. Even up close, Echo was hard to keep track of.

As they were running, Leo asked

"So, you've got to repeat everything that you hear?"

"Everything that you hear." They all stopped to catch their breath.

"That could be fun."

"Fun?"

"Yeah! Let's give it a try, uh, blue elephants!"

"Blue elephants!"

"Pigs in a blanket!"

"Pigs in a blanket!"

"Kiss me, you fool,"

"You fool!"

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Leo, don't tease her," Hazel chided.

"Don't tease her!" Said Echo, sticking out her tongue.

"All right, all right. So what did you need to show us?"

He asked, wiping sweat from his brow. "Do you need our help?"

"Need our help!" She started to sprint again.

"Hurry up, or we'll lose her," said Leo.

Echo led them to a group of nymphs circling around something, craning their necks to get a better view, hyper-extending their smartphone clad arms for a better video. That something was a pond.

"What's so interesting about a pond?" Asked Hazel. "Do the fish in it do backflips and circus tricks or something?"

"One way to find out..." Wolverine girl muttered. "Scuse us! PARDON US! IMPORTANT BUSINESS HERE!"

"Hey!" A nymph complained 'We were here first!"

She drew her swords from the dark oblivion of her cape.

"Taizai bakku! Watashi wa korera o shiyō shimasu!"

They backed away and let them through revealing a man kneeled over the pond, gazing at the water. To put it simply, this guy was HOT. Dark hair swept over his brow, he had the build of a dancer, with long arms and legs, he had perfect posture and an air of regal calm.

OK. It's done! All results are in! Life is officially unfair! Thought Leo. Had the gods just used up all the attractiveness creating this guy so that none was left for Leo? Like, honestly? How easy is it to get the recipe for the average male human wrong? Most of the time, he didn't pay attention to what other guys looked like, it only made him jealous. Maybe that came from being around Jason all the time. He was tall, blonde, rugged and basically everything Leo always wanted to be but couldn't. He knew he couldn't get a girl by his looks, he hoped his skills with machines (because that was a major turn on for anybody, am I right?) and his sense of humor, but so far that plan hadn't worked out yet.

He glanced over at Wolverine girl.

 _Maybe...No. I have bigger things to worry about._

He looked back at . His face was bathed in an unusual golden light. In the sunset, the light was being reflected off a sheet of bronze about the same size of a shield at the bottom of the pond.

"Gods he's gorgeous." Said Hazel, breathless. All around her, nymphs squeled in agreement.

"I am..." He murmured. "I am so gorgeous..."

"He's so hot!" Squeled a nymph wearing an 'I 3 NARCISSUS' t-shirt

"Narcissus?" Leo wondered aloud

"Narcissus," Repeated Echo.

"Oh, not you again!" Complained a nymph.

"You had your chance, Echo!"

"He dumped you like, a thousand years ago!"

"Echo, why did you bring us here?" Asked Hazel.

"She's got some weird idea he needs saving." Grumbled a nymph holding a smartphone.

"I'm just glad hes alive again!" Giggled a nymph in a 'Mrs. Narcissus' t-shirt. "Now we can finally go out!"

"NU-UH!"

"MY PRECIOUS!"

"Girls, chill! He clearly loves me!"

And then all hades broke loose on the nymphs. Wolverine girl whistled shrilly and everyone froze.

"SUDENI DAMARE! SORE WA DONO YO NI MUZUKASHIDESU?!"

"NOBODY UNDERSTANDS YOU!" complained a nymph.

"SHATTOAPPUFAKKU!" She pointed a sword at the nymph.

Everyone was silent.

"Thank you!' Said Leo. He knelt next to Narcissus "Hey man, wassup?"

"Can you move please? You're blocking the view." Leo looked at himself in the bronze mirror, and his self esteem dropped about 95%. Compared to Narcissus, he was more like an undergrown troll than a human.

"Yeah, yeah great view and all, happy to move, but if you're not using it, could I have that bronze, right there?"

"No, I love him. He's so gorgeous."

Leo was starting to wonder if this was all some big joke and that someone would jump out and yell 'April fools!' But unfortunately, it wasn't April fools day. And nobody was laughing.

"You do know that's you're own reflection, right?"

"I am so great!" He swooned.

"Uh yeah, but if I took the bronze, you'd still be able to see yourself in the water. Er-here I'll trade you." He took out a handheld mirror from his belt.

"Even you carry a picture of me? I don't blame you, I am flawless, but this image is better. The colors flatter me, don't you think?"

"Yes!"

"Marry me!"

"Sign my poster-"

"No, my shirt-"

"No, my forehead!"

"No, my-"

"Enough!" Hazel snapped.

"Enough." Agreed Echo.

The nymphs tried to shove Hazel out of the way, but Wolverine forced them back with her swords.

"He won't sign your samurai swords!"

"And he won't marry you!"

"How can you stand this guy?!" Asked Hazel. "He's so full've himself!"

"I am sooooo hot!"

"Narcissus, listen." Hazel sighed. "Echo brought us here to help, right Echo?"

"Echo," She repeated.

"Who?" asked Narcissus.

"The only girl here who actually cares about you!" Hazel massaged her temples. This guy was giving her a headache. "Do you remember dying?"

"I-no. I'm much to important to the world to die. Sorry, honey, but I just don't do dying."

"You died staring at yourself," The story was starting to come back to Hazel. "Nemesis cursed you for breaking to many hearts. Your punishment was to fall in love with your own reflection.'

"I love me sooo much!"

"Point is," Leo interrupted. "You've got a second chance! Get up and get on with your life! Don't just sit here until you die like last time!"

"Stay here!" The nymphs chorused.

The sun was sinking fast

"Leo, can we talk for a minute?"

"Scuse us," Leo told Narcissus. "Echo, want to come with?"

"Come with," she nodded.

The nymphs went back to oggling over Narcissus again. Hazel led them out of earshot and stabbed her golden sword into the ground.

"I guess some heroes just can't change their nature. Narcissus is gonna sit there until he's dead again."

"No," said Leo.

"No," echoed Echo.(pun intended that time)

"We need that bronze and if we take it, we could give Narcissus a reason to snap out of it. Echo might finally have a chance to save him!"

"A chance to save him!" She nodded vigorously

"Well, I get what you're saying," Started wolverine girl.

Wow, she has a really nice accent...

"But if we take that bronze, several dozen nymphs will not be very pleased with us."

"Plus, Narcissus might still know how to use that bow of his." Added Hazel.

Leo thought about his for a while. He'd had some experience with mobs of angry nymphs before and he was not to keen on wanting to repeat that disaster again. The sun was only getting lower and he was starting to panic. Of course, that's where he got an idea. It was a bad one, but they'd have to make do.

"Hazel- your power over metals, can you just sense it, or can you control it, too?"

"Both," she sighed. "But I've never tried with that much metal. It would take a lot of concentration, I'd have to be some what close, and it wouldn't be fast."

"Be fast," warned Echo.

"Welp, sh*t."

"LEO!" gasped Hazel

"LEO!" repeated Echo.

"Sorry! Forgot- 1940's- uh, sorry. Memo to me, no swearing around Hazel!"

Pfft. Thought wolverine girl. If this girl knew what I was saying in my native language... The corners of her mouth twitched, almost forming her first smile in a week. But it didn't matter. Nobody saw, her face, it was mostly hidden by her hood anyway.

"Alright. we're gonna need to try something risky. Hazel, you've got to try to summon the bronze from here."

"But Narcissus is looking at it all the time!"

"All the time!"

"Exactly. That's my part. I'm the diversion."

"Diversion?" Asked Echo.

"Yeah. And I need your help. Are you willing?"

"Willing." She nodded.

"What about me?" Wolverine girl piped up.

"You are the back up. If this plan fails, which I am 99.999% sure that it will, I'll need you to come running in with those swords and that cool smokey-purple-y thing you did earlier.

She dropped her swords.

"You okay?"

"Yes, fine." She said quickly. Her swords flew back to her hands like Thor's hammer or something like that. Hazel didn't think she sounded "fine."

"All right. Let's do what we do best: Stare death in the face and somehow make it out miracalously unharmed!"

"What in the world are you thinking?" Hazel shook her head.

"I try not to think," Leo crunched a breath mint. "It interferes with being nuts."

Wolverine girl laughed slightly.

Gods, she has a nice laugh... Wait what?

"Whatever. Are you ready to move the bronze?"

"Yep."

"Let's do this." Leo took a deep breath. He thought he looked pretty cool with his slicked back hair,(It was going to take a while to wash the machine oil out of it,)His sunglasses perched on his head, (Those were actually welding goggles,)His new tattoos, (drawn with a sharpie by Wolverine girl and Hazel, who actually quite talented artists,)and the wrench in his back pocket. (Why he'd put that there, nobody reallyknew, but that was the thing with him. Others asked him why, he'd reply with why not?)

He strutted over to the pond, trying his best to not look like he was mentally ill and had just escaped an asylum, (given his new outfit, that would be a challenge,)and shouted

"LEO IS THE COOLEST!"

"LEO IS THE COOLEST!" Shouted Echo.

"Yeah, baby check me out!"

"Check me out!"

"Make way for the king!"

"The king!"

"Narcissus is weak!"

"WEAK!"

The nymphs all scattered in surprise. He waved his hand like he was shooing a bug.

"Sorry girls no autographs. I know, I know we all wants the Leo, but there's only one of me, and besides, I'm way too cool for all of you. But I guess you can have that guy." He looked disgustedly at Narcissus and waved his hand like something stunk

"WOW! This guys lame is so strong I can smell it from here! Someone get me the Febreeze!"

"Get me the Febreeze!" Yelled Echo

"What are you talking about?" Demanded a nymph

"Yeah!" Started another. "You're the one who needs the Febreeze."

"Uh duh. That's what I said! I need Febreeze to get rid of this awful stench before it starts to affect my coolness!"

Leo saw Wolverine girl face palming at the edge of his vision.

He flex his non-existant biceps and adjusted his "sunglasses." He had the nymphs attention, if only because they were stunned, but that wasn't good enough. He needed Narcissus away from the pond. He could just give up and run away, it wasn't too late yet. He looked back, to see just how far it would be to run back to the ship then and there, but he saw something else. Wolverine girl and Hazel were both trying not to laugh, Hazel, while toting 50 pounds of Celestial bronze.

Well, that's just what I'm here for. Brightening your day since 1999!

"Do you not see how ugly Narcissus is?" He asked, regaining his confidence. "Just look at the poor guy! I bet when he was born, his mama thought he was a backwards centaur; with a horse butt for a face!"

Narcissus frowned like he was vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his head. Several nymphs gasped.

You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Leo ventured. "Because he used to hunt for dates with it! And let's be honest: he's a little rusty!" One nymph laughed, only to be elbowed into silence by the others.

Narcissus turned his head. "Who are you?"

"I am the super sized Mcshizzle!"

He saw Wolverine girl double over with silent laughter in his peripheral line of sight.

"I am the bad boy supreme! And the ladies love a bad boy!"

"Love a bad boy!" yelled Echo.

Wolverine girl burst into giggles and Hazel had to push her down when a few nymphs looked back muttering things like ,"What was that?"

Leo took out a pen and autographed a nymphs arm. He had to keep talking.

"Narcissus is such a loser! He's so weak, he couldn't bench press a kleenex! He's so lame when you look up lame on wikipedia, it has a picture of him! Only nobody ever checks it out 'cuz it' so UGLY!"

Narcissus turned his full attention Leo, forgetting about the pond. The bronze was starting to sink.

"What are you even saying?! I'm amazing and everyone knows it!"

"Yeah! Amazing at pure suck!" Leo looked at him like he was a piece of gum he'd just stepped on. "If I were as suck as you, I'd drown myself! Oh wait- you already did that!"

Another nymph giggled, and then another and another. Narcissus growled, contorting his features angrily, making him look a lot less handsome than before. Leo beamed and spread his arms, gesturing for applause.

"Daz right! Team Leo for the win!"

"Team Leo for the win!" Shouted Echo. Since her camoflauge worked so well, the nymphs thought it was one of their own little group and one by one joined in.

"Well, he is kinda cute..."

"Yeah, in an adorable-scrawny way!"

"PUH-lease! Scrawny is the new sizzling hot! And I gots the scrawny!"

He glanced at the pond. Only the bronze's edge could be seen.

"Narcissus? He's such a loser, not even the underworld wanted this guy! He couldn't even get the ghost girls to date him!"

"Ew!" said a nymph

"Gross!" complained another.

"STOP!" Narcissus stood up and stomped his foot. "THIS IS NOT RIGHT! This person clearly is not the 'super sized mcshizzle!' I AM! So he must be.. He must be..." Narcissus struggled for the right words. It had been a while since he'd last talked about anything but himself. "He must be tricking us."

Apparently, he wasn't a complete moron as Leo had assumed. Narcissus looked back at the pond.

"My mirror! Its gone! They took it! They stole it! Give me back! I'm the beautiful one! If I don't get my mirror back I'm leaving!"

The nymphs gasped in horror.

"THERE!" One pointed and shouted.

Wolverine girl was barreling towards them at in-human speed. She made it to the fan club of nymphs in what must've been record time and slaughtered four of their friends. The nymphs stared in terror at the new patch of wildflowers on the ground, wondering which on of them was next. They all looked up with looks of fury and vengeance on their faces.

"GET THEM!" One sounded a battle cry and suddenly every nymph had a makeshift weapon in their hand. Some held rocks or bats wreathed in tiny white flowers. Some water nymphs held squirt guns, which weren't as intimidating, but something told Leo water nymphs could wield squirt guns like nobody's business.

"Now would be a good time to-uh- ANATA NO O SHIRI O ISOI!"

She grabbed him by the wrist and started to sprint, dragging him along behind her.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Asked Narcissus impatiently. "Get my mirror! Whoever brings me that bronze will be kissed by me, after I kiss my own reflection!"

"OMG." They all squeled then hurried off after them.

"And kill those demigods. They are so not cooler than me."

Leo seriously had a knack for running when someone was chasing after him, demanding that his bleeding corpse be pinned on their wall as a murder trophy. (I'm obviously a bright and cheery person XD) Sadly, he'd had plenty of experience in that general field. He ran for Hazel, wolverine on his tail to prevent any nymphs from coming close to him. She was not going to let herself be the cause of an innocent death...Again. Adrenaline rushed through her body, and seemed to flow especially strong near her hands. She recognized this feeling immediately, this meant her hands would start to smoke purple at any given second. But this time, the smoke came out of her as silver. For whatever reason, the silver smoke made her feel less guilty than the purple smoke did.

Nymphs were usually quick, but these were burdened by tshirts, crumpled posters and other Narcissus (TM) Merchandise. And they weren't very good at working together as a team. They tripped and stumbled over each other, and Echo was trying to tackle as many nymphs as possible to slow them down. Still, they closed in rapidly.

"Call Arion!" Leo gasped , as he fumbled to grab the other side of the bronze sheet to help her carry it to the ship.

"I did!" Panted Hazel

They ran towards the beach. The ship wasn't far, and they could see it from here, but it was still too far to swim with a large bronze sheet the size of a shield.

Leo turned to face the mob, which was coming over the dunes now. Narcissus was in front of the pack, holding his bow high above his head like he'd already won, he attempted firing an old dusty arrow, but the arrow along with his bow burst into splinters.

"GO!" Shouted Wolverine girl. Somehow in their haste, her hood had blown off.

"YEAH NO SH*T SHERLOCK!"

She gave him a long stern look. Now he realized that this girl wasn't normal, even by demigod standards. He'd already witnessed her power firsthand, he didnt even want to know what that smokey thing could do, and she used ninja swords like she'd spent her whole life training with them. She had this regal aura, like she was some goddess in disguise, or maybe not in disguise, given her outfit. Even though it was dark, from what Leo saw in a fraction of a second, she looked like a goddess. She had dark, wavy hair a little over waist length. Her cheekbones were high and jutting, like she was Maleficent or something, but not nearly as fake looking. Her nose was pointed, but not like a witch, more elegant. And then there were her eyes. What was the deal with them? They were so big and distracting like she'd walked straight of a manga. Her eyes seemed to be what her whole face revolved around. He couldn't pin point exactly what it was, but he struggled to look away.

"Keep going and don't look back!"

"Don't look back!" Echo shouted after them. She was racing ahead of the crowd now. She stopped in front of Leo and spread her arms like a human shield.

"Echo," Leo attempted to swallow the lump in his throat. "You're one brave nymph."

"Brave nymph?" Her tone made it a question.

"You really are. And if we survive this, forget Narcissus."

"Forget Narcissus?" She said uncertainly.

"You're too good for him. I'm proud to say you're on Team Leo."

The nymphs surrounded them in a semicircle, Narcissus in the front,

"KILL THEM! AND GET ME BACK!" He ordered.

They all advanced, except for one very confused nymph who squeaked,"Team Leo?" but before they'd moved two feet, the sand before them exploded, spraying them with white lime. They all collapsed coughing and gagging.

"I FRICKIN LOVE THIS HORSE!" Exclaimed Leo.

Hazel climbed into the saddle.

"We can't leave Echo!" Leo protested.

"Leave Echo!" she repeated, smiling warmly at him.

"BUT-"

"DON'T WORRY!" Yelled wolverine girl. The nymphs and Narcissus were starting to recover from their surprise sandstorm."I'll stay with Echo and Take care of the nymph's! I'll protect her from them! You need to get the ship as far away as possible from the island! I'm staying with her until I'm 100% positive she's safe, and then I'll meet you at the ship! I promise she'll be fine!"

"She'll be fine!'' Echo nodded

"But what if you can't take these guys, what if they get to Echo, what if they get to you? How will you find the ship once we leave? What if-" She cut Leo's rant of 'what ifs' short.

"THAT IS AN ORDER! NOW SHUT UP AND GO!"

Reluctantly, Leo climbed on with Hazel.

''Good luck,"

Echo gave him one last smile and repeated,"Good luck."

Arion ran across the sea, turning water to steam in his tracks _. Good luck._ He tried to cling to her words, but the memory of her smile was already fading. He looked back at the island and saw, that a bright silver glow lit up the entire shore.

 **IF I WERE A GOD I SWEAR I'D BE THE GOD OF CLIFFHANGERS. Well, hope you enjoyed it, stay tuned for next chapter where you finally find out exactly who "she" is! YAY!**

 **Love to all my Lovely readers,**

 **~Willow-Tree-Silver~**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Coincedence or Fate?

Long story short, everyone came back, washed up, Leo did some Mickey Mousing on the ship (look it up on urban dictionary), then they had a group meeting in the messhall to compare notes on what had happened at Salt Lake City, and all went to sleep.  
All except, you guessed it, Leo.  
There were a few reasons he didn't want to sleep. One, he felt like he needed to take the nightwatch to make sure anything crazy didn't try to attack them like in New Rome, Two, he seriously didn't have the time or energy to deal with another nightmare. Nemesis had called him an outsider, a seventh wheel, and that comment had really stung. He'd heard of the fifth wheel, an extra, useless piece of equipment, so he figured that a seventh wheel was even worse than that. He knew that in the future, the new generation would study about how the seven (hopefully) won the war against Gaea. He could imagine Chiron teaching the new campers about the seven demigods of the prophecy.  
"...Jason Grace, Prince of the Skies. The charming Piper McLean. Hazel Levesque, Miss Metal Detector. Frank Zhang, the part time dragon. Annabeth Chase, the brains, brawn and beauty (no Leo was not crushing on her; that girl scared him), all in one, and the savior of Olympus, Percy Jackson.  
Oh, I nearly forgot, also the repair boy, Leo."  
Yeah. Ouch. He didn't want to dream about being nothing more than some lonely mechanic. Especially the lonely part. He'd always been known as the lover boy, he'd go after girls that were way out of his league, and in return, they'd try to turn him into a popsicle. (I'm looking at you, Khione.)  
He was only fifteen, but he thought about his future a lot, most of the time, unintentionally. The day he got a girlfriend would be the day Hades froze over. Yeah, that would happen. He wasn't going to get a girlfriend, much less a wife and/or kids (again, with the unintentionally deep thoughts), no matter how hard he tried. He'd never be able to win over a girl like Thalia, or Khione, or wolverine girl, for that matter. Wow. Wolverine girl. She still hadn't come back from the island.  
Is she okay? I hope she's okay.. I hope Echo's okay...  
Had she "taken care of" the nymphs yet? Had Narcissus and his fangirl army managed to subdue her? It was what, midnight, now? She should've been back by now, considering what he'd witnessed of her fighting skills. Seriously? What was that smoke power? And what language had she and Nemesis been speaking in?  
THUNK!  
His train of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of Wolverine girl hitting the floor of the ship after falling from the sky. At least it looked like she'd fallen from the sky. She tucked and rolled like it was second nature, stood up and brushed herself off.

And then she realized Leo was standing right next to her.

"TAWAGOTO! I did not see you!"  
"Not like I saw you coming from the F*CKING SKY!"  
She glared at him from under her hood.  
"Toucé."  
"Ok! Two questions! One: How?" He pointed to the overcast night above them.  
"That is none of your business!"  
"Two: Is Echo alright?"  
Wolverine girl sighed.  
"Yes. She's fine. As for Narcissus and the nymphs, I can't exactly say the same about them." She smirked like she'd won something. Which judging from her confident tone, she had.  
"Ok. Good. But seriously? Where did you even come from? Did you just apparate here like Harry Potter or something?"  
"Who? Never mind, I don't care. But I..," She yawned. "..need somewhere to sleep. I'm exhausted."  
"Hmm... I guess you could use my room."  
"But then where will you sleep?"  
"I'm taking the nightwatch, so I'm not gonna sleep for a while anyway. Plus I usually sleep in the engine room-"  
"Engine room? Why of all places there?"  
"Hephaestus thing, I guess.. I'm just a lot more comfortable around machines, like Festus, here." He gestured to the figure head behind him. "Festus, say hi."  
The bronze dragon turned to face them.  
"Ehrl-o," he creaked.  
"Hello there, little fella!" She patted the dragon's head. Festus seemed to enjoy it and nuzzled her gently. "Awww!"  
Leo was amazed that this girl had such a way with machines. Maybe she was another child of Hephaestus? No. His brothers and sisters were usually built bulkier than this, and he was a rare exception. Plus, Hephaestus kids didn't have silver and purple smoke powers.  
Wolverine girl "oohed" and "awwed" over Festus for a while asking rhetorical questions like "Who's a good boy?'' and countless others like it. Festus normally would've blasted anybody who talked to him like he was some sort of pet into ashes, but for whatever reason, this time he made mechanical clicking and whirring noises that resembled a cat's purr.  
"Did you make him?" She asked, awestruck.  
"No. But I revived him as a figurehead to be with me on the ship and I added the control console. It's just supposed to be that way, ya know? It's- it's a long story involving multiple dragon crashes, princess potty sludge, and a crayon drawing of destiny."  
"Okaaaay then.." she yawned again. "Well, lead the way. Where is your room?"

The door to Leo's room creaked open.  
"Sorry, it's kinda messy." 'Messy' was an understatement. In the few days he'd been on the ship, he'd managed to make his room a little bit more than messy. There were scattered parts for unfinished machines littering the floor, a couple of dirty t-shirts here and there, and his bed was cluttered with random blueprints for other projects.  
She sat down at his desk and messed around with a few screws and bits of bronze.  
"Uhmmm... What are you doing?"  
"Nothing..."  
"Okaaayy.." He peered over her shoulder to see what she was making. Some how, out of some small pieces of scrap metal, she'd managed to create a metallic rose, about the size of a charm for a bracelet. "Wow. That's actually really cool."  
"Ya think?"  
"Yeah. Where'd you learn to work metal like that?"  
"I don't really know... I guess you could say I'm self taught."  
"Nice. Here, uh. I'll clean off the bed."  
"Nah I got it."  
"It's fine, I'll do it." They both got up, and reached for a blue-print on the bed. Wolverine girl got to it first and unraveled it. Her eyes widened. She muttered something inaudible.  
"What?"  
"You are a genius."  
"Uhmm.. What?"  
"Your inventions... How- how did you think of this? I mean, honestly, this is- is wow. Well except for..." She pointed out every mistake he'd made and how to fix it. That only made him more curious as to who her godly parent could be, because he'd already ruled out Hephaestus.  
"I dunno how, I think of 'em.. It comes naturally. Just another Hephaestus thing I guess."  
She was silent for a while.  
"Ok this is starting to annoy me. What is with this whole Greek and Roman gods and their children thing? And also, an explanation as to why I'm here, and where we're going on this giant bronze health hazard."  
"I don't know why or how you got here, and as for where we're going...That's another really long story."  
"We've got all night.'' she folded her arms.  
"Okay, lemme rephrase that. I don't feel like telling the story."  
"Tell me what's going on dammit!"  
"Okay! Okay!" gods, this girl could be really intimidating. He told her in the briefest way possible that sometimes the gods have children called demigods with mortals, the whole prophecy of seven and how everyone one the ship except for her and Coach Hedge was one of the seven, and that Gaea and the giants want to kill everyone. She stared blankly when he was finished.  
"So... You're a "demigod,"She put up finger quotations on the word demigod. "I'm most likely a demigod, everyone except that satyr on this ship is half god, and the fate of the world rests in our teenage hands."  
"That sounds about right."  
"Well that explains a lot." she plopped down on the bed, paper crinkling where she sat.  
"Like that smoke thing?"  
"Uhmm... Yeah.." she turned away shyly. "Yeah that smoke thing..." Wolverine girl cleared her throat and stood up. "See ya in the morning."  
Leo turned to go, but then turned back. He had to ask her something.  
Wolverine girl had removed her hooded cape thing and hung it on the footboard of his bed and was clearing of the last of his blueprints.  
Woah.  
Was his nose on fire? Maybe that was just a nosebleed... He could actually see her face clearly now.  
Holy schist she was hot. No... Beautiful... No, gorgeous. That was the word. Knock out gorgeous.  
She had long jet black hair that fell down in gentle waves. Her skin was white like a porcelain doll. Was she pouting? No. Why would she be doing that? That was probably just her neutral expression. And then there was her eyes. Wow! They seriously stood out. Her eyes were bigger than normal, like she was wearing glasses with a thick lense, and they were- hang on- purple? And he'd thought he'd seen everything... She reminded him of a geisha, one of those Japanese girls with the white face make up.  
That's what it was! Said a voice in the back of his head. She was speaking Japanese!  
Then he probably said something really intelligent like "Uuuhhhhhhh."  
"Are you- Are you okay..?"  
"Uuuuuuhhh"  
"Leo! Snap out of it!" She waved a hand in front of his face. He didn't move.  
"Leo!" She shook him by the shoulders. Now she was starting to worry. She thought he'd just been messing with her before. "What is wrong with you?!"  
Oh my gods this is the most beautiful human being I've ever encountered in my life.  
There was a glass of water on the nightstand. She grabbed it and threw it in his face. He seemed only vaguely aware that he was now soaked.  
"What to do... What do I do?" she shook him again.  
"EARTH TO LEO. COME IN LEO." She paced around the room. Was he in some sort of trance? Trance! Yes, that was it! That Geo person he'd mentioned must have put him in some sort of trance. Well what could break a trance? A distraction.. She'd tried shaking him back to reality, she'd tried using water so that left.. An airhorn! Unfortunately, she didn't have that, so she had to use her last resort.  
"Sorry in advance!"  
Leo's eyes shot back into focus. "Wait- what?"  
A few seconds later he was massaging the handprint shaped area on his cheek where she'd slapped him. "Ow!" Now he thought he was in pain. Then she half-hugged, half tackled him. Okay, now he was in pain.  
"ITTAI NANI GA?! Don't do that! You scared the living hell out of me!"  
"Uhhhhh.."  
 _has stopped working._  
The most beautiful human being he'd ever encountered in his life had panicked because she thought he was in danger, and then nearly broken his rib cage in a hug.  
Woah. A pretty girl was hugging him. That was a first. Was his face on fire? He touched his nose to make sure it wasn't, but he could still feel heat... Especially around his forehead... Wolverine girl sniffed.  
"Do you smell something burning?"  
A light flickered in front of his eyes.  
Aaaaaand his hair was on a fire. Fantastic.  
"That," he sighed exasperatedly. "Would be me." He gestured to his flaming hair.  
"Wooooaaah. Your hair is um... on fire." Suddenly, he was very aware of how her hand was resting on his chest still and how close their faces were and how she smelled like apples and cherry blossoms, and- well, the list went on for about forever and a day.  
"Yeah. That happens when I get nervous." His hair flared up. Did he just say that out loud? Okay, he was just going to keep getting stupider, so he needed to end this before it got any worse. Leo cleared his throat. "Uh... You can let go now."  
"Can I though? No more freaky- whatever that was? Honestly what was that? Tell me." This girl barely even knew him but she was still genuinely concerned. The kinder, less ruthless-murderous-cutthroat part of nature was showing through.  
"I um... I just..." His already fried brain was trying to focus on fabricating some kind of lie, but it was kind of hard when a beautiful girl was clinging to you. "I spaced out..?"  
"You spaced out." She gave him a look that said 'Seriously. That's the best you could come up with?'  
"Yeah. I spaced out." He said, slicking his hair back to extinguish the flames.  
"I'm- you- ugh." She sighed and yawned. "I'm not even going to try to figure that one out. Goodnight." She let go of him and walked back over to the bed.  
"Yeah. Night." Leo turned to go and turned back, for the second time that night. "Hey I almost forgot, what's your name? It's been bugging me all day, and I am not going to continue referring to you as wolverine girl for the rest of this quest."  
"You've been referring to me as what again?"  
"Um, it doesn't matter, but I still need to know your name."  
She glared at him.  
"Well, that's a bummer for you, because I'm not telling."  
"You better."  
"I won't."  
"You will."  
"I won't."  
"You will."  
"I won't."  
"You won't." He smirked.  
"I will. Wait, what?!"  
"Haha! I got you! Now you have to tell me!" He stuck his tongue out at her.  
"I'm not going to. And you're real mature, for the record." She folded her arms.  
"I know. But you know what I don't know?"  
"My name." She said, monotonously.  
"Exactly! Now tell me so I can say I know everything!"  
"Even if I did tell you, you'd be far from knowing everything."

"I would totally know everything if I knew your name!"

"No you wouldn't."

"Really? I won't know everything if I did know your name? Prove it then!"  
"I will! My name is Night Lock!"  
Leo smirked again. A look of realization dawned on Night Lock's face.  
"Why you little- UGH! I can't believe I was fooled so easily!" She turned away, embarrassed by her stupidity.  
Silence for a while.  
"Sooo... Night Lock." He ventured  
"Yes. That's my name. Now you know. Are you happy yet?"  
He sighed, annoyed.  
"Actually, no! There is no way that's your real name!"  
"So what if it's not? Maybe I use an alias for a good reason!"

"And what might that reason be?"

"You wanna know?! Fine! I don't go by my real name because.. It doesn't suit me."

"And how does 'Night Lock' suit you better than your real name?"

"Well.. I am a lot like Night Lock. As in the berry..."

"Really? How?" He asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

She sighed. "Anyone can mistake Night Lock for blueberries, right?" She looked down and wouldn't meet his eyes. "I'm kind of the same way. I seem harmless, but if you're smart, you'll know that I can actually be very deadly. I didn't want to be deadly, nature just made me that way. And that's why I don't use my real name."

"That's deep, man. But why don't you use something more upbeat? Like Daisy or Patricia, or I dunno, maybe your _real name!"_

"Is there any stopping your un-daunted will to learn my real name?"

"Nope."

"Why?! Why do you _need_ to know so badly?!"

" I just want to know you better! How do you expect me to trust you, a member of my own crew-"  
"Please, I am not a member of your 'crew.' All I know is that one day, I fall asleep and I woke up here. I didn't really have a choice there! But now I have a choice. I just need to find a way to go back home and get off this ship, but until then, I absolutely refuse to be a member of your crew."  
"Woah. Harsh." He made an 'I surrender' gesture.  
"Well what did you expect!?" She snapped, standing up angrily. "That I'd be happy, and grateful that all this had happened to me?! That I'd just be plucked right off the map, and then taped here on your ship, and jump for joy?!"  
"I'm sorry! I just- I wanted to-"  
"Just go!"  
"But I-"  
"Leave already!" Her voice broke. "Leave me alone!"  
"I- I-"  
Night Lock looked up at him, glassy-eyed.  
"I'll just... I'll go..." He made his way to the door, crest-fallen. "Sorry. Sleep well." Leo gently shut the door behind him, and slumped down against it.  
Now he felt like crying, too. He rested his face in his hands.  
This happened every time. He meets a girl, immediately decides he loves her, and they turn him down flat in the rudest way possible. (Again with the Leosicle incident.)  
Well, what had he expected? The girl had had a rough day, and judging from what he'd just witnessed, he'd only rubbed salt in the wound.  
She probably had a family, she probably had a boyfriend. She was way out of his league, and he knew it. She deserved someone with the looks of Narcissus and the personality of a veterinarian. And still, he chased after her to no avail. He'd at least hoped they could've been buddies, chums, mates, whatever you wanted to call it. But now, he'd destroyed that slight possibility, too. He destroyed everything.  
"Stupid..." He muttered to himself. "I'm. A. F*cktard."  
Leo got up. He needed to go back to night watch. For all he knew, the deck could be crawling with monsters.

Night Lock flopped over on the bed. How did this even happen? Her life (or what was left of it anyway) was spiraling out of control. First, the murder, and now this? Maybe the police had caught her. Maybe she'd been sentenced to death and this was her eternal punishment. Whatever it was, she just wanted it to be over. Maybe her life was just a bad dream and she'd been in a coma for fifteen years. Someday she'd eventually wake up from this nightmare. This might've been the gods' sick idea of a joke. Her life was a joke and she wasn't laughing anymore.  
She yawned.  
That was the final straw. After the battle with Narcissus and the nymphs, her energy was pretty much non-existent. She needed to sleep, not contemplate how pathetic she was.  
She grabbed the blanket and pulled it over herself. She would've changed out of the uncomfortable clothing she was wearing, but she had nothing to change into, and she was feeling to lazy to move anyway. Her eyes shut and then opened again. She was so tired, she couldn't sleep. (Sara McLachlan reference there) She fell victim to contemplating her patheticness again. Her thoughts drifted over to Leo, much against her will. Had she been too rough? No, he deserved that... Right? She had to show that she was dominant around here, how else could she have done that?  
You just don't mess with me.  
She had to look like the leader here, even if she had absolutely no control over anything that was happening. That was the only way she could conceal her grief, and herself.  
Walk through the world with a certain finger raised on each hand, and nothing can touch you.  
That was the motto she lived by. It was what she had to live by. She wore a thick shell of impenetrable armor around her at all times. It was what she had to do. If she hadn't, she would've been broken years ago.  
Still, she had her weak spots. Chinks in the armor. Leo had found one of those sensitive places.  
What was this guy's game? He wanted to "get to know her?" Sorry, bud. Not gonna happen.  
But still though... Had she been to cruel? He hadn't done anything to her, besides annoy her a bit. It was probably just the built up pressure of that day, and Leo happened to be holding the bomb when it went off.  
Now he was making her feel guilty...  
Now she had to go apologize. Great.  
Night Lock got up and opened the door. Leo was walking away, staring at his shoes.  
"Wait."  
He looked back with the most pitiable expression on his face. He twinged at her heartstrings.  
"I'm- I'm really sorry.." She looked away, embarrassed. "I didn't mean any of that- I just- things have been tough lately, okay?"  
"It's- fine... I shouldn't have asked so many questions, I shouldn't have-"  
"No. I'm in the wrong here. What you said was acceptable under those circumstances, I was- I was being stupid." She admitted.  
"Yeah...You kinda were..."  
"Hey, don't push it, Hothead."  
"Hothead? What, are we playing nicknames now?"  
"Maybe..." Night lock said with a sing-song voice, in hopes to lighten the mood.  
"Fine then... Wolverine girl..." He smirked, and she glared. "Sorry..."  
"No! No, no! Calm down." She said quickly. "But don't call me that. Ever. Seriously."  
He let out a small laugh.  
 _Awwww... his laugh is adorable! Like a little kitten!_  
"I might. Anyway, can I come in?"  
"Um..." She felt a sudden piercing in her chest, but it was only momentary.  
"Fine. Come in."  
His face lit up like he'd just been told he'd be getting a free ice-cream.  
 _KAWAII!_ Squealed a small voice in the back of her mind.  
They walked into the room and Leo closed the door behind him. For whatever reason, this made her feel anxious. She hated small spaces. She hated feeling trapped. She needed to get back outside ASAP.  
She felt the piercing sensation in her chest again and winced. This time it had been more forceful.  
"You okay?"  
"Yeah... I'm okay..." The stabbing feeling was starting in her limbs now, too.  
He studied her for a while.  
"You don't look okay... You're shivering. You're freezing."  
She was shivering? Now that he mentioned it, the temperature did seem lower- like a lot lower- than it had been when she'd gotten back on the ship.  
"Leo..." She coughed. Her voice was raspy and it hurt to speak. Spikes seemed to have taken over her throat. She was freezing cold and feverish at the same time. A wave of nausea washed over her. She stood abruptly and knelt over, clutching her stomach.  
"Oh gods-" She choked.  
"Woah! Are you gonna be sick?!  
"No-! No, I'm ok, I'm fine!" Her breathing was getting more labored. She looked paler than she already had been, and that was saying a lot.

"Are you sure? You don't need this?" He grabbed the near by trash can.

She straightened up again. "I'll be fine..!" She managed weakly.  
"Your lips are blue! You need to get warm!"  
"I'm ok! Really!" She smiled like someone had drugged her up on laughing gas.  
"Quit denying it. You're in pain and you need help, and- OH MY GODS!"  
"What? I'm fiiiiiiiiine..!" She dragged out the "fine" using the same ditzy voice, punctuating it with a raspy cough.  
Tonight, Leo had seen a man in love with his own reflection, he'd gotten a nymph fan club, and he'd seen a girl with purple eyes, but still the strangest-thing-that's-happened-all-day award had to go to this.  
Ice was forming in leafy patterns all over her face, arms and legs. It was trying to seal her entire body up like a cocoon. It had already gotten as far as her wrists and ankles, the only reason he hadn't noticed it before is because of the long sleeve, floor length dress she was wearing, but now, the ice was climbing into clear view on her face.  
"I'm fiiiiiiiiiiiiine..!" She flopped over lifelessly on the floor before his feet.  
"Oh. No. This isn't good." He needed to stop the ice from spreading. That was the top priority. Why ice though?  
 _Shut up and help her already,_ said an annoying logical voice in his head.  
 _Yeah. I should probably do that,_ normal Leo replied.  
He wrapped one of her arms around him and stood up, nearly crumpling under her weight.  
Why were unconscious women so heavy?  
Well that came out wrong...  
*******(A little while later)*******  
He did it! He actually had done it!  
Somehow, he'd managed to make it all the way to sick bay without dropping her (though coming close to about 4 times) once! And that was especially hard, as she was a good 2 1/2 inches taller than him, and a hell of a lot heavier. (At least from his perspective; they were actually close to the same weight.)  
Leo set her down on the nearest bed. The ice was closing in on her nose and mouth quickly.  
His body heated up like he was about catch on fire out of nervousness. He reached for the ambrosia.  
Wait- ambrosia doesn't melt ice!  
Heat melted ice.  
He just needed to find a source of heat! That's it!  
Wasn't there a heater somewhere in sick bay in case one of them got hypothermia or something?  
He looked around for about forty five seconds before realizing that, no, there was not in fact a heater in sick bay.  
Leo's hands were hot due to the intense freak out he was going through.  
"Oh gods... No heater? No heater? Now what?!"  
And now his hands were ablaze.  
His hands were on fire... His hands were on fire!  
He smacked his forehead. DUH!  
He was fire. She was almost frozen. HMMMMM. WHAT DO I DO NOW..?  
It took him long enough, but he finally put 2 and 2 together. He had to get her as close to him as possible.  
Leo grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around the both of them. He heated up, but made a conscious effort to not take it too far and burst into flames. The ice began to melt, and he could've sworn he heard a voice go "Dammit..!" But it was just the two of them in there, so he figured he was hearing things.  
Night Lock stirred slightly  
 _Thank the gods she's not dead..._  
"Whu... where am... where am I..?" She said in the same ditzy, laughing gas induced voice. "Leo..?"  
"'Don't do that, it scared the living hell out of me!'" He quoted.  
"Haha very funny. Wait- Do what again? What am I doing in here? What happened?" The gears in her brain started turning properly again.  
"You don't remember anything?"  
"Nothing." She sighed hopelessly.  
"Well... Something with ice magic tried freezing you. First you started shivering, but I couldn't see any ice yet. Then you almost puked, and then you were acting like you were on crack-"  
She held up a hand gesturing for him to stop. "Okay! Okaaay, I think I've heard enough. So, something tried to freeze me." She blushed bright red like she'd just realized where she was exactly. "Aaaand, judging from the position we're in, you tried to melt the ice, am I correct?"  
"Sounds right to me." Their eyes locked for a second too long. "You okay now?"  
Night Lock shivered suddenly.  
"I'll take that as a no.." Leo wrapped the blanket around them tighter.  
Silence.  
"Thanks." She choked out awkwardly.  
"Huh?"  
"Don't make me say it again!" She added threateningly.  
"No seriously, I didn't hear you!" He teased. Actually, he had heard her.  
"I said thank you, dammit! Is it all hot gas in your head that powers the flame hair thing?" Night Lock socked him in the arm, which hurt him a little more than he was proud to say.  
"Ow! And- uh, it was nothing, don't thank me."  
"Nothing? Nothing! You just saved my life! That ice could've frozen all my internal organs, and stopped my heart from beating! I wouldn't describe that as 'nothing'." She lightly shook her head. "So humble..."  
"Well, what do you want me to do? Parade around wearing a medal bragging to everyone that I saved a life?" Well, that sounded a lot less heroic in my head...  
"I'm not saying that but- You just- You are modest." She concluded. "You're too modest. You do a lot around here,and you act like you're useless. You built this ship, and still feel like nothing compared to your crew. You are, technically speaking, the captain of this ship. Very low self-esteem, I can tell already."  
Leo stared, blinking stupidly. Her words had all gone by in a rush, barely giving him any time for them to sink in. He'd only managed to grasp bits and pieces of what Night Lock had said. What he'd heard was more like, "I know absolutely everything about you, and there's nothing you can do about it. You don't think you do sh*t, but you're actually kind of important. You don't really have a lot of confidence, but you should. And that's coming from me, the girl of your dreams, who is completely perfect in every way!"  
But he still had one question. How did she manage to learn so much about him in the few hours they'd known each other?  
She must've read his mind again.  
"Observing." She said quickly. "Sharp eyesight. If you really pay attention, you'll observe more, and you'll have more to analyze. For me, the analyzation skills come naturally,"  
 _Yeah,_ He thought. _So does your beauty, fighting skills, brains, oh and not to mention, JAPANESE._  
"I'm able to weave a mental web of thoughts and events together to form one big picture with ease. I pride myself in being able to read people's emotions easily. Born with it. Don't know how, nor why."  
He tried to take in how so much amazing could be packed into one single person without their body overflowing with cool. There was an awkward moment of silence as he gawked at her. What were the nymphs thinking? She was the real one to go gaga for.  
"Don't stare. It's rude and, quite frankly you're creeping me out a bit."  
"Sorry," He said, snapping back to reality again.  
"You're weird, ya know?"  
"Yeah, yeah... What else is new?" He smiled at her. She smiled back.  
Another moment of silence and staring.  
She yawned. Then Leo yawned. Hey, it was contagious.  
They laughed.  
"We should sleep. What time is it?"  
"Dunno. About 1:30 now." He rubbed his eyes. "You still cold?"  
"Umm..."  
Leo wasn't holding her anymore. She hadn't wanted him to let go.  
She needed to be sure of something in her hot mess of a life, and as of right now the only thing she was sure of was that Leo was right there with her. She couldn't let go. He was the only thing anchoring her to reality. The only ledge she had to hold to keep from falling off the cliff. (major foreshadowing, there) She needed him to be there. For the sake of her sanity. Sure, she was warm again, but still...  
"Umm... Can you stay here?" She shivered and started turned red, hoping that wouldn't give away the more-than-a-little-obvious lie.  
"Uh...Yeah, I guess... I'll be right back." Leo got up to leave.  
She felt the nagging suspicion that he didn't want to be around her anymore and that he wasn't going to come back.  
 _"NO, DON'T GO!"_  
Screamed the less-sane voice in the back of her mind.  
He probably picked up on her emotions (or maybe he just saw the look of absolute terror that had engulfed her face without her even knowing it) (You're welcome for the graphic imagery, BTW) and told her he was only going to ask if Hedge could take the rest of the night shift.  
"Okay." 80 pounds of worry and nervousness were taken of her shoulders. "Hurry please."  
"Yeah, no problem. See ya in a second." He left the room, and Night Lock stared at the place where he'd just been standing, smiling warmly. (again, pun was intended that time.)  
She was happy again. Wow. It had been a while since she'd last been happy, she'd nearly forgotten what it felt like to not be stressed, guilty, depressed, and angry at the world in general.  
Leo... He was so... how could she describe him? He didn't know her at all, and he'd gone out of his way to help her. A life saver, quite literally.  
She could hardly believe she'd let her guard down for even a second, and gotten frozen because of it. Just her rotten luck.  
But wow... What a great person...  
 _Dono yō ni anata wadeshita?_  
"Shut up, Akito!" Immediately, she felt bad for it. She'd forgotten, if only for an hour.  
"Damn it, Akito... I'm so sorry..." she muttered  
Leo walked into the room. "Who are you talking to?"  
"How long have you been standing there?!"  
"Who's Akito?"  
"You didn't hear anything! Got it?!"  
He put up his hands in an another 'I surrender' gesture. "Zip it, lock it, throw away the key. Anyways, scoot over." The hospital bed normally wouldn't fit two people, but Leo was thin enough to manage.  
Night Lock had to curl up in ball against him for them both to fit, but he didn't mind. She couldn't deny that she enjoyed it a little bit, too.  
"You are so warm..." Her eyes began to droop.  
He put his hand against her fore head like he was checking for fever, except in reverse.  
"Wow... You're still freezing..."  
"No, really?" She dropped a hint of sarcasm in her tone. "Before I-" Her sentence was cut short by a yawn. "...Before I fall asleep, who do you think did that?"  
"Did what?"  
"The ice thing."  
"Ummmm... I dunno," Leo yawned "Could've been Elsa, for all I know..."  
"Who?"  
"Dude. Ice powers girl from Frozen."  
"Frozen?"  
"Seriously? You've never heard of Frozen?"  
"What is Frozen? Is that a play?"  
"No! It's a movie."  
She looked at him like he speaking another language.  
"What is a 'moo-vee?'"  
"You're kidding, right?"  
"No." she sighed annoyedly. "Well, let's focus less on this 'Elsa' from these 'Moo-vees,' let's talk about me, now." Night Lock blushed. "Oh Gods- forget I said that, that sounded really conceited-"  
He snorted lightly.  
"What? Why are you laughing, what is so funny?!"  
"Nothing, it's just.. You're not at all what I took you for."  
"Well, what did you take me for, then?" She said, calming down again.  
"I just didn't think- I hadn't expected- Uuummm, I just-"  
It was a bit harder than he'd expected to function normally around girls when they were actually paying attention to him.  
"Are you gonna talk or not?"  
"Yeah er- you just aren't uh- you are-"  
She arched an eyebrow at him.  
"You'rereallyadorablewhenyou'reblushing..!" His words spilled over one another. Dafuq, brain? Why would you say that, dumb*ss?!  
"Nanda..?"  
"Nothing..!"  
She glared as though questioning his logic. "Whatever. I'm tired. Goodnight, Leo."  
"Yeah," Leo shook his head as he turned off the bedside lamp. What was he just thinking? "Um... Good night. I'll show you what a movie is sometime..."  
Her eyes closed, and she moved in closer to keep warm.  
He needed sleep too, after a crazy day like this, and knowing that more crazy days were yet to come.  
But how can you expect someone to sleep when they were snuggled up with the love their life? (Let's hope.)  
Leo could hardly believe that she didn't reject him immediately like every other girl did. She gave him a nick name! That was a good start, Percy and Annabeth had nick names for each other. Hothead and Wolverine girl.  
That sounded cool in his head, but in reality that was actually kind of stupid.  
Finally, he got somebody not to try to freeze him!  
Wait a minute...  
Leo bolted upright in bed, and scared the living hell out of Night Lock, who had almost been fast asleep.  
"F*CK THAT DAMN B*TCH KHIONE."  
"NANDA ITTAI?!" She half screamed at him, scrambling out of bed, drawing her swords out of what seemed like thin air, expecting that some monster was attacking them  
"Khione! She's who tried to turn you into an ice sculpture!" He face palmed. Why hadn't he thought of it before? "She's the goddess of snow!"  
"Leo! Calm down!"  
"NO!" He paced arond the bed massaging the bridge of his nose, muttering things like "Now she's done it," and "B*tch better get ready for summer time,"  
Night Lock flicked her wrists and the swords returned to arm braces.  
"Dude. Calm your tits."  
"I DON'T HAVE TITS. I'M A GUY." He snapped.  
"Well, technically speaking you could have moobs, which are man boobs..." She thought about that for a second with a disgusted look on her face. "Ya know what, forget I said that.. But, de-stress your breasts..." She waited for his reaction, which was an un-amused glare.  
She started to laugh a little. "Soothe your boobs..." She continued, laughing harder.  
"Are you kidding me?"  
"Hang on- hang on, one more.. Undo the calamity that is your mammaries!"  
"DUDE." He bit his lip trying not to laugh.  
"OK LAST ONE I SWEAR!" She tried saying through bursts of laughter "You better calm down before you have a-"  
"Don't even say it-"  
"A RACK ATTACK!"  
"Where did you even come up with all of these?!" Leo said, gasping for air when he wasn't consumed by laughter.  
"I don't- I don't even know! But I'm on a roll!"  
"Okay try to be serious now."  
She sat down on the bed and attempted hiding her smile.  
Leo did the same.  
Aaaaand then they both burst out in spontaneous giggles.  
"Ssssssh! Don't- Don't wake up the whole ship!"  
"I'm trying, I'm trying!" She said trying to hold in all her laughter, but she shook with the effort.  
"Alright. For real this time."  
"Okay. 3-2-1- serious. What were you saying earlier about Khione? She's a daughter of Boreas right?"  
"Yeah. And a total b*tch if you ask me."  
"Again, give that chest a rest.. Sorry, continue."  
"Anyway, myself, Piper and Jason fought with Khione before. Maybe she attacked you to get revenge on us for defeating her or something like that?"  
"Hmmm.. Well she is the goddess of snow. The cold is bitter and merciless, so I can see how that would tie in with the whole snow thing and her personality."  
"Hey, I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you know so much about the gods?"  
She opened her mouth to say something, but realized she had nothing to say. She didn't really have an explanation for that.  
Silence for a count of five.  
"I don't know. All I know is that one day, I'm in my forest, and the next day, I wake up here. I don't even know how I learned English."  
"You didn't know English before today? Wait- You own a forest?!"  
"One: I didn't know a single word of English before today. I didn't even know there was more than one language in the world until today. Two: Sadly, it wasn't 'my' forest, but I was the only- er- well, there were only two people who ever went into that forest, and I was one of them. So, I liked to think of it as our forest, but since he... since he..." Her voice trailed off indefinetly, and she stared at her shoes. "Since he... Well.. Before I came here, it was only my forest because, he just..." She said, her voice gradually getting softer.  
"Hey- you don't have to talk about it.."  
That was kind of a lie. Now he was curious. He wanted to know why she called it "our forest," he wanted to find out exactly who "he" is, what happened to this guy, and how he was connected with Night Lock. Family, maybe? _Boyfriend_ , maybe?!  
Gods he really hoped she didn't have a boyfriend.  
But he wasn't going to be rude and force her to tell him anything.  
"Um... Thanks again. I really don't want to talk about it."  
"That's fine. Demigods generally have a rough childhood."  
"Did you?"  
"Uh.." Leo gulped nervously. "Yeah. I... I killed my mom."  
"YOU WHAT?!" She half shrieked.  
"Not on purpose! It was- Gaea, she appeared and attacked me! And I tried to fight back using fire but I only started a fire and- the door, it was- it was locked and..." His voice cracked. He didn't really like reliving past tragedies so much either. He only wanted to talk about how he was the reason his mom was dead as much as the next guy, but still, she deserved to know, right?  
Night Lock studied his hard expression. "I'm sorry. Forget I asked, we should sleep, for real this time it's, it's getting late and we-"  
"No." Said Leo, not looking up. "I'm this ship's captain, right?"  
"Well, yes, but-"  
"Exactly. My crew should know who's leading them."  
"I- I wouldn't say that I'm part of your crew-"  
"Yes. Yes you are. And you're gonna listen to this story whether you like it or not."  
"Leo, no. That's final. You're not telling me, it's only going to cause you pain, I don't need to know-"  
"Yeah ya do."  
"But I-"  
"No buts. Sit down and get comfy. This is a long story."  
Another silence as he eye-balled her with his arms folded, as if daring her to say otherwise.  
She sighed and looked back up at him. "Fire away." (heh heh puns.)

Night Lock P.O.V.

Why was he doing this?  
That was all I really wanted to know. I told him not to, and he still insisted on doing so anyway.  
He defied a direct order. Sure, he is the captain, but I thought I did a pretty good job on making it seem like I was supreme commander of everything.  
Of course, that's not really me, but I didn't have a choice there. As soon as I walked in- ahem- woke up on this ship, I sensed something powerful, and it only got stronger the closer I got to these demigods. One of them smelled like ocean, and one of them smelled more like a zoo. A zoo and an ocean would be powerful together, right? I knew that they'd beat me to a pulp if I didn't threaten to beat them to a pulp first.  
Oh and yes, I have a very keen sense of smell.  
But now... Now I'd taken it too far with Leo. I'd let my guard down and revealed more of myself than I ever intended to.  
He knew too much now. He'd even found some weak spots.  
I had to kill him, but since the fate of the world depends on his existence, I guess that's not an option.  
I realized this all too late.  
Everything had been going just fine when I first landed on ship after the thing with Echo and the nymphs, up until now.  
I was having a good time, I told him some things I promised myself I wouldn't tell anyone, he'd caught me talking to Akito, who wasn't even actually there, and now he might suspect that I have mental issues.  
This Khione, was the person I had to blame. Before she decided to go and freeze me, I had everything under control. I kicked Leo out, I was about to go to sleep, and that was that.  
BUT NOPE.  
Not just yet.  
Oh, you thought you were getting off that easy? HAHAHAHA NO.  
Leo just happened to be standing right there, and he just happened to be a child of Hephaestus, who just happened to be the god of black-smithing and FIRE, and Leo just happened to be one of the few children with the ability to control and create flames.  
WHAT A COINCIDENCE.  
Coincidence...  
Yeah right. There's no way this could possibly be a coincidence.  
The fates just hate me.  
This is fate. No doubt.

...Fate...

Is it _fate_ , that I wound up here?

Is it _fate_ , that I went on Leo's mission instead of the other three's?Is it _fate_ , that he was taking the night watch tonight so that he might run into me?  
Is it _fate_ , that Khione attacked me, and not him? It surely would've been simpler to attack the source of her wrath, just get rid of it on the spot...  
It is fate. It has to be.  
And now it is fate that Leo is telling me his life story.  
As much as I know that this will only end in tears for him, I know that this also has to be fate. All those other things that I didn't want to happen... They were fate as well.  
Maybe I was wrong.  
You can't avoid a prophecy, the same way you can't change what is bound to happen.  
This is bound to happen. This can't be a coincidence. It just can't be!  
Everything that had happened in the past week was bound to happen, and if it didn't, my life, and no one's lives would be the same if it hadn't happened the way it did.  
Sure, it was a tragedy, but it had to happen.  
Like the plot of a story. You can't have the resolution if you don't get through the last and hardest battle, first.  
Everything at this moment, feels so terribly, horribly, wrong... But this is fate.  
It has to be the right thing.  
Disregarding the feeling that something is unsafe, I let Leo continue his story.  
He needs to tell me his story.  
This is no coincidence that Khione attacked me and not him.  
This did have to happen.  
This is fate.

Leo's P.O.V.

Gods what was happening?  
Today is by far the most upside-down, inside-out day that I've ever had, and I've had a lot of those.  
I have no clue what I'm doing.  
I'm hopeless.  
This is hopeless.  
I feel like this is all some giant dream that I'm about to wake up from, everything in this moment is just so surreal.  
My mouth starts talking before my brain knows what's happening.  
"So when I was eight.. I lived with mom. We spent everyday working in a machine shop. The night it happened... She was working on this drill bit thingy she wanted to get a patent on." I surprised myself, being able to remember that tiny detail. "If she could've managed to do that, we might've been billionaires. She probably could've if she lived to finish it." Just act like it's no big deal... Be cool. "We ended up staying late that night, and it was kind of creepy, cuz we were the only ones left in the shop. So that also meant we'd have to lock up." My heart beat was getting faster out of nervousness, (why this situation made me feel nervous, I dunno, maybe because I'm telling her everything and that she might look at me differently knowing I killed someone?) so I blew on my thumb. This was some trick I learned about a vein that went straight to the heart through the hand, and cooling it down could slow a heart beat down to it's normal pace. "So... We made it to the break room, and mom realized she forgot her keys. She told me to wait there while she went to get them. A few seconds later..." I was blinking back tears now. Gods WHYYYY? In front of her? In front of anyone? "The...The doors locked... Both doors, one led you back into the warehouse, where mom was and one that would lead you out of the shop. So, I started freaking out, and I tapped her a message in morse code on the wall. That was a game we liked to play, we tap out little messages like 'I love you' or 'Goodnight,' ya know, things like that. So I'm just screaming 'mom!' and tapping 'you okay?' when this... This voice... She interrupts me. She tells me that mom couldn't hear me. I turn around and... It's my evil baby sitter, Tia Callida, who's actually Hera by the way."  
"Hera was your baby sitter?"  
"Uh... Yeah. Long story. I'll tell you later... Anyway, I thought it was Tia... But she was wearing this dark robe, and she had a veil over her face. I asked her if she was Tia and she tells me _'I am not your guardian. Merely a family resemblance.'_ Then our conversation was something like this:  
 _'Who are you? Where is my mom?'  
'Ah... Loyal to your mother... How nice. But you see, I have children too, and I understand that you will try to fight them some day. When they try to wake me, you will prevent them. I cannot allow that.'_  
And then I realize that this lady is actually asleep, and that she's just sleep talking. So then I say,  
 _'Who are you? I don't know you. I don't want to fight anybody'  
'A wise choice...'_ She said. Then I realize this lady's clothes- that robe and veil thing- were actually made out of Earth. Like dirt and dust and grass and all those wonderful things, so she kind of looked like a zombie. Then she's all like, _'I cannot destroy you yet, the fates will not allow it,'"_ I noticed how she cringed at the word 'fates'. _"'But they do not protect your mother, and they cannot stop me from breaking for spirit. So remember this little hero, when they ask you to oppose me.'_ She starts moving towards me like an avalanche or something. And she whispered 'How are you going to stop me,'"  
"Leo... You don't have to say anything else." I knew she could see I was about to cry. Dammit! The goal was not to cry!  
Whatever. I need to continue the story.  
"So then... I just screamed, and I lit my hands on fire... But I was only eight, I freaked out and..." I felt her hand on my shoulder.  
"Keep going. But only if you want to."  
"Yeah... I set everything on fire while mom was locked in and... Then I just... I don't remember anything. I think I lost consciousness, and when I woke up I was on a hospital stretcher on an ambulance... And the paramedic... She tried to be nice... But she told me..." I wince at the thought of it. I'm not even gonna say it. I can't say it. My voice crawls back into my throat to die.  
"She told you that your mom didn't make it."  
I glance up at her. She looks concerned, her face says it all.  
 _I'm sorry for your loss._  
That's what everyone said, whether they were actually sorry or just going through the motions.  
But... She really did look sorry.  
 _Shit shit shit NO YOU ARE NOT GONNA CRY. YOU'RE NOT._  
"AH! What are you doing?!" I yell. Out of no where, she pulled me into a bone crushing hug. My heart is beating fast again, but I can't move my arm to blow on my thumb.

"Cry. You have to. It's hard remembering something like that. I can read right through you. You keep your emotions pent up. I noticed you crack jokes during awkward situations to prevent any slip ups. You use the smiling mask. Humor is your cover up for the pain."  
"How did you..?"  
"Ssh. It doesn't matter how I know. I just do. I know a lot of things, Leo."  
I don't know how to respond to that. I literally have no words. She only squeezes tighter. That was sudden.  
What am I supposed to do in this situation?  
Some one hugs you, what is the general protocol for a hug? Hug back, right?  
Well, I guess that's my only choice. I wriggle my arms out of her death grip, and hug back.  
UGH. This is probably the most awkward thing I've done tonight besides the accidental snuggling after the Khione attacked.  
"That's a start. You need sleep. We both do. C'mon." She motioned towards the bed.  
"I guess..."  
"No surprises this time."  
"Yeah. No surprises." Even though this whole thing is one giant surprise, No surprises! She squeezes me one last time, and gets up. She takes off her shoes, which were 3 inch black heels, so those couldn't have been very comfortable to sleep in. Or run in like earlier today... Wait she was running in heels? In the sand? That was faster than I could ever run, what is her normal speed like?  
Dammit brain. Focus.  
Oh, the joys of being an ADHD demigod.  
I just sit there on the bed, unmoving.  
She lifts up the covers  
"Leo. Sleep."  
I blink a few times. Guess I fazed out. Still I don't get up.  
"I'm still cold." She says softly. I look up.  
She's smiling her perfect smile. "Come here, Leo." Her arms are open for another hug.  
I feel like I'm attached to a cord, and it's dragging me towards her.  
I stand up and before I know what I'm doing, and next thing I know, I'm sobbing into her shoulder.  
"You're embarrassed about this. You don't have to be." She strokes my curly hair. "Crying is good. It's human nature."  
It was a good five minutes before we separate.  
"Now let's sleep. We're both tired. I think it's about three A.M." She laughs slightly.  
"Okay." I sniff. She grabs my wrist slightly and we both squeeze ourselves into the tiny bed. I wrap my arms around her to keep her warm.  
"Goodnight, Leo." She turns off the lamp and rested her head on my shoulder.  
"Goodnight... And thanks." I say.

What?

It's only the natural thing to say. I wanted her to hear me but she was already asleep. I hadn't noticed before, but she had light eye bags like she hadn't slept for a while. And not like a few hours.. More like a few days.

I yawn.  
She was right. We both needed sleep.  
My eyes close, and I drift off into a dreamless sleep.  
****************

[A/N: This is Willow's FIRST GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT chapter. Thanks to the Grammar Nazi Autumn. Here Willow you deserve some sparkles. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Okay, now onto Willow.]

[A/N: Thanks Autumn! This chapter is dedicated to you for all your hard work on correcting my terrible grammar!

Now...

PLEASE DON'T KILL MEH IM SOOOOOOOOORRRRRY I DONT WANNA DIE I SWEAR I'LL NEVER TAKE THAT LONG TO UPDATE AGAIN!

You: Pft. excuses excuses! Deal with it and update faster!

OKAY I WILL

So.. I hope you liked the chapter... Uh, stay tuned for the next chapter, review, favorite, follow... Etc., etc.

OKEY BAAAAIIII

Love to all my Lovely readers, (Who I hope don't want to kill me!)

_-Willow-Silver-_


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